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W.P. Ker
William Paton Ker (30 August 1855 - 17 July 1923) was a Scottish academic and essayist. Life Ker was born in Glasgow in 1855. He studied at Glasgow Academy, the University of Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed to a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford in 1879. He became Professor of English Literature and History at the University College of South Wales, Cardiff in 1883; and moved to University College London as Quain Professor in 1889. He was the Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1920 to his death while hill-climbing in Europe. Writing W.H. Auden's discovery of Ker was a turning point for him: :"... what good angel lured me into Blackwell's one afternoon and, from such a wilderness of volumes, picked out for me the essays of W.P. Ker? No other critic whom I have subsequently read could have granted me the same vision of a kind of literary All Souls Night in which the dead, the living and the unborn writers of every age and tongue were seen as engaged upon a common, noble and civilizing task. No other could have so instantaneously aroused in me a fascination with prosody, which I have never lost." Recognition A W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture is held at Glasgow University in his honour. He is referred to repeatedly in J.R.R. Tolkien's essay Beowulf: The monsters and the critics. Publications Non-fiction *''Epic and Romance: Essays on medieval literature. London & New York: Macmillan, 1897; New York: Dover, 1957. *The Dark Ages. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1904; New York: Scribner, 1904; New York: New American Library, 1958. *''On the Danish Ballads. Glasgow: 1904; Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for Scottish Historical Review Trust, 1904. *''Essays on Medieval Literature. London & New York: Macmillan, 1905. *Sturla the Historian. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1906. *Tennyson: The Leslie Stephen lecture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1909. *On the Philosophy of History: An address. Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1909. *Romance. Oxford, UK: H. Hart for Oxford University Press, 1909. *On the History of the Ballads, 1100-1500. London: Henry Frowde for Oxford University Press, 1910. *Thomas Warton. Henry Frowde for Oxford University Press & the British Academy, 1910. *English Literature; Medieval. London: Williams & Norgate, 1911; New York: Holt, 1912 **also published as ''Medieval English Literature. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1912, 1969. ISBN 978-0-19-888043-1 *''Jacob Grimm: An address. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1915. *The Eighteenth Century. Oxford?, UK: Oxford University Press, 1916. *Two Essays: Don Quixote / The politics of Burns. Glasgow: Maclehose, 1918. *Sir Walter Scott: A lecture at the Sorbonne. Glasgow: Maclehose, Jackson, 1919. *The Art of Poetry: Inaugural lecture. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1920. *''Sir Walter Scott's Scotland. London: National Home Reading Union, 1922. *''The Art of Poetry: Seven lectures, 1920-1922.'' Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1923. *''Collected Essays'' (edited by Charles Whibley). London: Macmillan, 1925; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1967; New York: Russell & Russell, 1968. *''Form And Style In Poetry: Lectures and notes'' (edited by R.W. Chambers). London: Macmillan, 1928; New York: Russell & Russell, 1968. *''On Modern Literature: Lectures and addresses'' (edited by Clarence Spencer). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1955. Edited *Samuel Henry Jeyes, "Fugitive Writings", in Sidney Low, Samuel Henry Jeyes: A sketch of his personality and work. London: Duckworth, 1915. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:W P Ker, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 3, 2016. See also * List of literary critics References *http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/William_Paton_Ker Notes External links ;Books * *W.P. Ker at the Online Books Page Category:1855 births Category:1923 deaths Category:People from Glasgow Category:People educated at the Glasgow Academy Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Scottish literary critics Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Scottish scholars and academics Category:Scottish essayists Category:Academics of Cardiff University Category:Academics of University College London Category:Oxford Professors of Poetry Category:British academics Category:English literary critics